First Rhye Experience - arg

[Astat]

ok i've read some FAQ and strategy stuff, then downloaded the latest RFC for BTS. i decided to try my first game with greece on monarch, but i must have done something wrong.. or a lot of things.

it all started with the oracle being built "in a far away land" right as i was done researching priesthood (my first tech!). adios, historic victory...
meanwhile, i used the 2nd settler to found a city around albania, which was called Mycenai.

both cities were busy building colossus and parthenon when the romans appeared. and for some reason, the mycenai wanted to form a new nation (i wasnt unstable or anything). i refused the secession, which, for some other reason, caused the romans to declare war on me. i continued choprushing the 2 wonders while moving my 2 starting spearmen up to Mycenai, leaving the warrior in Athenai. (my transport ship and 2nd warrior were lost to the roman navy, as they couldnt travel back to the eastern mediterranean with carthaginian borders suddenly being in the way)


i finished the wonders and started producing phalanx in Mycenai and Triremes in Athenai. but my 2 units in Mycenai must have felt sympathetic for the Romans, as they had both defected by the time i could choprush my first Phalanx.

oh and during all this action, suddenly the Indians contacted me for apparently no reason at all. i dont know where they are and how they reached me there in south europe...

with a Roman land army approaching Mycenai and my units defecting to the enemy, i called it a day, saved the game and came to this board for some much-needed help.



what did i do wrong? which jerk built my Oracle? what's with the Indians? and does the mod want me to let northern greece defect to Rome without a fight, thereby punishing me for denying the secession?

 

[Úmarth]

In RFC, each civ has a "spawn area", any cities in which will want to join the rising civilization. This is very necessary to stop the player simply blocking their future rivals from appearing (you can use <a href="http://meat.arvixe.com/~joeyroe/rfc_atlas/">this little tool</a> to find out where the spawn areas are). As you can see Mycenai probably fell just inside their borders, you could have avoided (immediate) war by founding it to the west slightly, or if you'd have let it flip you'd also have peace.

As for failing the UHV, some are very difficult and take many attempts and some clever micromanagement (beyond my abilities, most of them). You might be best of trying Viceroy difficulty and/or and easier UHV such as Egypt, Japan or the western European civs to get you started.

But really UHVs aren't everything, I don't play towards them. You can have fun just playing and trying to make a powerful empire. Just keep in mind a few things: in RFC, there's not much use founding very spread out cities like you might in vanilla. The AI certainly doesn't. It's a big map but there's a lot of civs, so there simply isn't the space. And with the plague and all you'll be spending the vast majority of the game leaving periphery plots unworked if you spread them out too much. Secondly, many of the early civs just weren't meant to survive as the AI so it takes some forward planning on the part of the player to avoid being smushed by a rising civ or by barbarians. For example: the Great Wall is pretty much a requirement for Rome and China to survive the massive barb waves they get hit with. The North African civs (Carthage, Ethiopia and Egypt) need to expand early and watch out for sporadic barb attacks - especially the camel archers which appear in Medieval times. Greece will also face barbarians, but the major threat is Rome, Russia and then Turkey. Babylon and Persia need to militarise fast to conquer each other, defend against barbs and independents and finally stop the Arabians - after which point their mostly home-free if they don't try and expand into Anatolia and fight the Turks. India has lots of potential, but Persia will often try a full-force invasion soon after they spawn. And stability is always a problem.

Hope that helped.

 

[Good Sauce]

Speaking of stability I've been having some trouble with it. Can anyone point me to an indepth discussion of what effects stability? I know the basics but, for example, in my current game I'm running commonwealth but still have a very low economy rating.

 

[MrPopov]

A search on the forums will find plenty of information about stability.

In reply to Astat, each game will be quite different, especially when you play a civ like Greece that spawns after the scenario starts. During those first 50 turns or so, the AI empires are building and teching on their own pace, so don't be suprised if next time, you are able to build the Oracle with ease (but run into troubles elsewhere).

 

[Rhye]

I was surprised hearing that a city in Albania was named Mykenai, which is the 1st random name.
In fact, it must have been (63,46), in Croatia, very close to Rome, a plot without a Greek name.
Actually, I have now found some names to fill that area

 

[Úmarth]

@Good Sauce http://wikirhye.wikidot.com/stability

 

[Heathcliff]

The easiest way to win with Greece is to only have Athens as the only city and build the wonders. But start with a workboat and perhaps a library.

 

[Wessel V1]

The easiest way to win with Greece is to only have Athens as the only city and build the wonders. But start with a workboat and perhaps a library.

It is even easier to start with another civ

 

[monolith94]

I actually like having Corinth as the starting Greek city lately, as it gives you 3 hammers right off the bat in the capital tile, and marble is online the instant that you get masonry. Build the oracle and parth in corinth, then settle a second city further north to nab the copper for the colossus.

I always send the three phalanx units east to raze as many middle eastern cities as possible for cash. Plus, if you settle great prophets from the oracle, you'll be rolling in dough.

 

[Astat]

thx for the replies.

you are right Rhye, it was more around croatia.. i went into ahistorical areas by trying to get the best resources.

 

[Al-Iskander]

Also, the Atlas is your friend (though I don't know if this reflects most recent version of the mod):

http://civ4.technologyresourcesgroup.com/